The scriptures have declared that it is difficult to acquire a human body. Human life is the highest among all living beings in creation. With all these endowments if people lack jnana (wisdom), they are no better than an animal. It is wisdom that distinguishes man from other animals. In spite of possessing a human body with its sacred capacities, people pursue wrong paths and indulge in misdeeds, thereby degrading their precious heritage. One who ought to dedicate oneself to the pursuit of the Divine - Nivritti marga (the inward path) and experience bliss, makes oneself a slave of the senses and wastes one’s life in the pursuit of the external - Pravritti marga (the outward path). All efforts are directed towards the cultivation of sensual pleasures instead of aiming at realisation of the power of the Spirit within. It is this preoccupation with the mundane that is at the root of all the insecurity and unhappiness experienced by man.

- Divine Discourse, 19 Jan, 1989.